Doro 6520 Review

Verdict:

"If all you want is a basic phone the Doro 6520 is a good choice. If you have sight or hearing problems it's even better, just don't expect to do much more than talk and text with it."

Full Review

Specifications

Full Review

Not all phones have to be smart, in fact, in making a phone smart you often lose the simplicity, and get lumbered with extra features that will go unused by many.

It’s seemingly with that in mind that the Doro 6520 has been made. This phone isn’t smart. It’s an old-school flip-phone with a keypad and a small screen.

But there’s more here than meets the eye and, crucially, it’s easy to use. Is that enough for it to carve out a niche in 2017? Read on to find out.

Screen

The Doro 6520 has a 2.8-inch 240 x 320 screen, so it’s very small by smartphone standards and not very sharp. But by dumb and feature phone standards it’s actually reasonably large, and certainly big enough to comfortably read messages and view photos.

This isn’t a phone that you’ll be playing videos on, so the limited size and resolution really isn’t much of a problem.

And all of the space will be available at all times, as it’s not a touchscreen, so you won’t find half the display obscured by a keyboard or your own fingers.

Design

The Doro 6520 has a clamshell design, so you flip it open to see the screen and use the keypad. That makes it compact but chunky, at 103.9 x 55.1 x 19.2mm, and it’s light at just 103g.

Available in red or grey, it has a plastic shell, but a reasonably attractive and solidly built one. It’s been well thought out too, as you can answer or end calls by opening or closing it, the keys are well spaced out so there’s no chance of you hitting the wrong one, and there are direct dial buttons for two of your favourite contacts.

It’s not going to win any design awards, but the Doro 6520 is simple and holds its own among other feature phones.

Power

The Doro 6520 is no powerhouse, with just a 520MHz ARM11 processor. That’s less than you’d find on even an entry level smartphone, but then the 6520 only costs around £50 and it doesn’t need to power anywhere near as many features as a smartphone.

As such that amount of power is adequate. It’s not the snappiest phone in the world but nor does it feel sluggish.

Camera

There’s a 2MP camera on the Doro 6520 and obviously this isn’t going to be taking great snaps, but viewed on the phone’s small screen they look quite good – just think twice about printing them out or viewing them on a larger display. The Doro 6520 can also film video, with similarly limited results.

There’s no front-facing camera here, but that’s not a feature we expect to see on basic handsets like this.

Features

The Doro 6520 has a surprising number of features, including feature phone staples like a web browser, email access, a calendar and games, as well as some of the accessibility features Doro specialises in, like enhanced loud and clear sound for the hard of hearing (as well as hearing aid support), talking keys for those with poor eyesight, and an assistance button, which will send a text message to three pre-set phone numbers when pressed, so they’ll know you need help.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

The Doro 6520 has an 800mAh battery, good for up to 8 hours of talk time or 380 hours of standby time.

Those figures aren’t amazing, but the good news is that since this is a phone you’ll mostly only be using for calls and texts (rather than all the apps and media people consume on smartphones) it should still be able to go a long time between charges.

There’s just 75MB of built in memory – good for storing contacts but not much more. However, there’s also a microSD card slot, so you can add up to 32GB more.

Connectivity options include Bluetooth and 3G – there’s no 4G here, so web browsing will be slightly sluggish.

Verdict

The Doro 6520 is a simple phone, aimed at people who don’t need all the bells and whistles of a smartphone, and instead just want something basic to call and text on.

The extra features and well-spaced keys also make it a strong choice for the elderly and those with sight or hearing impairments, and of course as a basic phone it’s also a good choice for anyone inexperienced with tech.

It’s chunky and the camera could be better (since even those without smartphone needs would probably like to take the occasional picture) but otherwise the Doro 6520 is a solid, simple handset and worth the money.